Specter of Love
by BadCatGirl
Summary: Jazz Fenton is tutoring a new kid, the senior Marz Stanton. He’s not the brightest bulb, but a reluctant romance begins to blossom between the two. However, romance has to wait, because an old enemy has returned to seek revenge on Danny.
1. Meeting Mr Stanton

Chapter 1:

Jazz Fenton tapped the eraser of her pencil impatiently against the table. The guy she was supposed to be tutoring was five minutes late. She sighed, flipping through the sociology book she was supposed to be going over with him.

"Hey Jazz." Danny greeted his sister nonchalantly. "What's up?"

Jazz lifted her chin out of her palm.

"Oh, hey Danny. I'm just waiting for my latest tutoring student. He was supposed to be here five whole minutes ago. If he's this late to all his classes too, no wonder he's failing sociology."

"Well maybe he got held up. Who is he, anyways?"

"No one you'd know, he's a senior. M.M. Stanton."

"You're tutoring a senior? Cool." Danny grinned at his sister.

"Not if he doesn't ever get here." She grumbled. "Lazy, tardy, no-brained jocks, I'm sick of tutoring guys who just aren't willing to put in the effort."

The doorbell rang.

"I'll get it on the way out," offered Danny.

Jazz smiled to herself, Danny had been in a good mood recently.

Danny opened the door to a tall guy who was breathing heavily.

"Hey, you must be the guy Jazz is waiting for."

"Yeah," the guy wheezed. "Sorry I'm late, I decided to jog here and it took me longer than I expected."

Danny nodded. "She's in the kitchen." He pointed to the kitchen door and saddled his backpack between his shoulders.

Danny turned as he went out the door. "Hey Jazz, I'm off, and your guy is here!"

Jazz walked out of the kitchen to meet her new student. He was tall, muscular, and wearing jogging sweats. Beads of sweat were rolling down his brown hair and his brow.

He was cute.

Jazz softened a little, and then reminded herself that she had the serious business of helping this guy bring up his grade.

"You're late. Come on, we'll be working in the kitchen." She heard the door close behind Danny. Knowing Danny, he would be heading out to meet Tucker and Sam to hang out and fight ghosts.

It was tough sitting on the sidelines as her little bro, her responsibility, was off endangering himself to save the town. But she had learned the hard way that her place was on the sidelines. She had her own way of helping out, though. She covered for him with their parents, helped him with his homework, and was there for him when he was feeling down.

Speaking of homework…

M.M. Stanton was perusing the refrigerator. He glanced over at a small box in the back that had been chained closed. He pulled it out, curious.

"Leave that alone!" Jazz snapped at him.

M.M. Stanton shoved the box back into its corner. He stood up, facing her, his face turning red.

"Sorry, I was just a little hungry after my jog." He apologized.

"Not hungry enough to try my parent's cooking, I promise you." Jazz pulled her chair out, sitting down in front of the book and papers she'd prepared.

M.M. Stanton sat down next to her, flipping the chair around so that the back was between his legs. He leaned over the chair's back, folding his arms.

"Okay Mr. Stanton," she started, opening the book.

"Call me Marz."

"Is that what the M stands for?"

"Actually it's Marcelle Marceu, after the famous French comedian."

Jazz stared at him blankly.

"He was a mime. My parents are both mimes and they hoped I'd following their footsteps." He grinned self-consciously. He hadn't meant to tell her that. He felt like an idiot.

"Well, Marz, let's start off with peer groups…"

"That was a Gucci!" the blonde ghost screeched at Danny. She lifted up the ruined ghost shoe. "You'll pay for that! Get him girls!"

The clique of teenaged ghost girls charged at Danny, their manicured nails extending in claws, and their pearly teeth elongated into needle-like fangs.

Danny flew underground. The harpies swooped past where he had been floating, confused.

Sam burst out of the Aeropostle store where she and Tucker had been hiding. Sam whipped out the Fenton thermos from the spider-shaped bag.

"Take this, you shallow, self-centered, media-obsessed, parasitic, boy-hogging witches!" A blue light shot out of the thermos, sucking in the distracted lead ghost. The ghost clawed at the air as she fought the vacuum. Finally the thermos won out, and Sam capped the lid.

The other ghosts stared blankly at each other for a moment, then scattered, escaping out mall's skylight.

There was a sound of escaping air and a white light from behind her, and Danny crawled out from behind one of the mannequins.

"Having fun, Sam?" He smirked at her.

"That was surprisingly therapeutic." She gave him a mischievous grin.

"Man, I've got a fake fingernail still stuck in my arm!" Tucker complained, pulling the offending piece of porcelain out of his forearm.

"We'll get you some antiseptic and a band-aid." Sam said, waving it off.

"Well, we missed the beginning of the movie." Danny shrugged, staring up at the clock.

"Well, we got to fight some really hot ghosts and Sam got to take out some of her goth frustration on someone, so I'd say it was a pretty successful afternoon." Tucker pulled out his PDA. "And there's another showing tomorrow."

"Food Court?" Danny asked.

"Food Court." His friends agreed.

Life had taken a pleasant upturn, Danny decided. He knew it wouldn't stay that way, but for the moment, he was content. His grades were acceptable, so he wasn't in trouble with Lancer for the moment, Dash was at an away game, so he was pretty much bully-free until Monday, and his parents were doing maintenance on the Ghost Portal, so the ghost threats would be lower for a little while. For once, he could relax.

Oh yeah right.


	2. Shadowy Figures

Chapter 2:

(This One's for my sis… And if you see tears on your screen, it's because this plot is hitting too close to home for me.)

Line Break

The shadow peered out after the three teens as they headed to the food court. She had been waiting for her revenge for far too long. Twice the ghost-kid had ruined her plans. If she ever wanted to obtain her immortality, she would have to take him out of the picture first. He was too powerful to fight head to head. Logic would dictate a mere half-ghost should not have the power to overcome such monsters as Skulker, the Fright Night, or Pariah Dark. But Danny Phantom was not just a half-ghost, he was also the son of two inventors, and besides using their inventions on the sly, he'd seemed to have also developed his own impulsive form of battle strategy, able to turn a fight to his advantage by pulling an unexpected and dirty trick.

She growled to herself. She'd had him in her grasp twice, and both times he'd managed to wriggle free and humiliate her.

A green ghost materialized behind her.

"You got it? She asked him."

"Right here," he held up a jar. Inside a small green light buzzed around, whispering. "It wasn't easy sneaking it away from Skulker."

"Good." She took the jar from her minion. She held it up to her face. "He won't be able to escape me… even in his dreams."

Line break

"Are you paying ANY attention to what I'm trying to tell you?"

Marz pried his eyes away from Jazz's rack. It just wasn't right for tutors to look that good. Marz rubbed his temples.

"Yeah. I just… need to stretch my legs." He got up, doing just that.

Jazz stared in amazement as he actually lifted his leg straight up past his head. He then stretched it the other way.

"So you're saying that we act different ways around different people in order to gain acceptance?" He asked, trying to remember what she had been explaining before her shirt had shifted.

"Yeah, that's one of the first things I told you." Jazz rolled her eyes. "I then spent about half an hour giving you examples."

"I remember a lot of big words."

Jazz growled a bit.

Marz stretched his back, reaching for his toes. Jazz looked away, holding her face in her hands.

"Are you quite done yet?"

Marz stood up straight, stretching his arms behind his head.

"Yup." He plopped back into the seat, crossing his arms back over the backrest.

"Good. Now let's look at these exercises…"

"I do exercises all the time."

"Not that kind, Marz!" Jazz groaned.

He grinned. He'd been joking, of course. Jazz was so easy to get a reaction out of.

"Hey Jazzerincess!" Jack Fenton boomed from behind Marz, causing him to jump.

Jack stared at the boy in confusion. "Who's this?"

"Dad, this is Marz Stanton. I'm tutoring him."

Jack Fenton got up in Marz's face, studying him closely.

"He seems human." Jack decided. "But better safe than sorry. Maddie!" He yelled down the stairs. "Get the Fenton Finder!"

"The Fenton Finder?" Jazz asked, mortified.

"We fixed it so that it will detect ghosts overshadowing humans."

Maddie Fenton ran up the stairs, carrying a small handheld device with bars on the sides, which lit up and gave off a soft buzzing sound.

She swept it up and down the length of Marz's body.

"He's giving off very low ecto-readings. He's safe." She declared.

"And it's very nice to meet you two too." Marz grinned.

"Hey Jazz, we want you to see our latest invention though." Jack said, practically bouncing. Marz's chair shook with the floor.

Maddie picked up a box off the floor where Jack had dropped it. She pulled out a power pack, which she strapped to her back. Out of the sides of the pack were plastic tubes, which ran down to fingerless leather gloves. Maddie pulled on the gloves and strapped the loose tubes to her arms with smaller leather straps.

Jack fiddled with a few dials on the power pack. Green light flowed down the tubes into the gloves. Maddie's hands began to glow green. The glow intensified into a glowing green orb.

Marz and Jazz stared wide-eyed as the green orb grew larger and brighter. The orb then exploded into a ray, blasting a hole in the ceiling.

"Hmm, we still need to work on controlling the energy levels." Maddie mumbled to herself.

"What was that?" Jazz asked.

"We call them the Ecto-Gloves. They make it so that you can throw balls of ectoenergy like a ghost can!" Jack swelled with pride.

"But we're still trying to figure out how to control the blasts." Maddie added.

Plaster sprinkled down onto the table.

Jazz groaned and buried her face in her arms.

Marz just grinned.

Line Break.

"…And they keep them pumped with these hormones that make them grow unnaturally large so that they can't even stand. And if they fall over or get injured, the workers will pick them up by the neck and then beat them againt the ground and throw them into a bin…"

Tucker and Danny were already green from listening to Sam's latest litany on the cruelty of slaughterhouses.

"Sam, we're trying to eat, you know." Danny interrupted.

"By buying that chicken sandwich you're supporting this cruelty!" Sam argued.

"Do we really need to have this fight again?" Tucker asked, biting down into his sandwich.

Danny looked at his own sandwich, then pushed it away, his appetite fading fast. He could of taken Sam's lecture, but when she had nabbed Tucker's PDA and forced them to watch the video… well, that was a little too much.

Sam looked triumphant.

"Dude, Sam, you made Danny sick!" Tucker scolded her, crumbs flying out of his mouth.

"Oh yeah, well maybe he'll think twice before supporting slaughterhouse cruelty.

"Great, not only have I lost my appetite, but I'm getting a headache." Danny mumbled as the two friends took up their age-old fight. He had thought they had finally settled that particular fight after the Lunch Lady's first attack on the school.

Lifting up his head, he noticed small smiles on both their faces.

Danny rolled his eyes. It was just another one of their play-fights.

The friendly bantering was cut short as Danny gasped, a small wisp of blue breath escaping from his mouth.

"Um, guys, I gotta go…"

"The bathrooms are next to the Patty-Palace." Sam reminded him, knowing fully that that was the last thing on his mind.

Danny ran over to the bathroom.

Moments later Danny Phantom peeked invisible, through the wall of the Patty-Palace.

"Those are Guccis, you jerk!" A feminine voice screeched.

"I AM THE BOX GHOST!" The blue specter replied, shoeboxes circling around him.

"I don't care if you're the Ghost King, you're not removing that merchandise without paying first!" the girl yelled back, throwing a foot-measure at the Box Ghost's face. He responded by making the shoeboxes pour their contents out on her head.

"Come on, Box Ghost, What's with the Guccis today?" Danny asked him, appearing from the floor.

The Box ghost turned to face him. "I AM THE BOX GHOST!" He yelled.

"And I'm Danny Phantom. Remember, I fight you about twice a week? Do you really need to keep introducing yourself?"

The Box Ghost stared at him blankly for a moment.

"BEWARE!" Boxes of sneakers rose up out of their piles.

"Nike! Now that's more like it!" Danny laughed, going intangible as the boxes flew right through him.

"Quit cracking wise, idiot!" The shop-girl poked her head out from under the pile of shoes. "Make him stop tearing apart the store!"

Line Break

"_Now, while he's distracted!" the shadow shook her assistant. He opened the jar, the light shooting out rocketing towards Danny. It hit him in the back, causing him to cry out in pain. He shook it off quickly though, and just in time to dodge a show the shopgirl had thrown at his head and pull out the Fenton Thermos, sucking the Box Ghost into it, ending the fight._

Line Break

"There, happy?" Danny phased the shop-girl through the pile of shoes. She dusted herself off, giving him a death-glare that could probably put a couple of ghosts back in their graves.

"Look at this mess, jerk! If you'd wasted less time on the banter and had just sucked that idiot into that bottle ("Thermos," Danny corrected) then there wouldn't be Prada spilling out all over the- YOU THERE! Leave those Nikes alone! Yeah, you better run!" The shop girl ran after a couple of guys who had slung a pair of high-tops over their shoulders.

Danny took that as his chance to also escape the shoe-seller's wrath, turning invisible and flying out through the shop window.

_Pathetic, you should have dusted the Box Ghost in seconds. You're a waste…_

Danny shook his head, wondering where that thought had come from. He'd been messing around with the Box Ghost. He wasn't much of a threat, just a little annoying and at best a little entertaining on dull Saturdays.

_You let a puny shop girl get in more hits than you, loser._

Danny ignored the thought, but it was disconcerting. He tried to ignore it, but the thoughts kept echoing in the back of his head.

The rest of the afternoon found Danny very quiet, something his friends didn't notice at first. Sam and Tucker had moved on from meat V.S. veggie to C.R.V. vans V.S. hybrid cars.

"Danny?" Sam finally asked as they were splitting for home, "What's up? You haven't said a thing since the mall."

Danny shook his head. "Nothing Sam. I'm just tired, that's all."

Sam gave her friend a look. Whenever Danny said that, it meant that there was definitely _something_ up.

"I'll see you guys tomorrow!" Danny said in a forced voice.

_All you do is hurt them. Whenever they're around you they get hurt. You drag them down. You're a plague on their lives. They'd be better off if you just died._

Danny turned from his friends a bit too quickly, running home.

"Something's up with Danny." Tucker noticed.

"Oh, you think?" Sam asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

Line Breaking Thingy…

(If you haven't already guessed who the "mysterious" villain is, then you just haven't been paying attention, have you now? I've done everything short of saying her name… Actually I did before I caught myself and changed it.)


	3. The Dreamers

Chapter 3:

The Casper high Track is overseen my Professor Testlaff, a statuesque, overbearing woman with the bark of a Great Dane and the temper of chihuwaha. She runs a tight ship, her job and goal to seek out true athletes and whip the rest into a passing shape. The gym and the track were her domain, her kingdom, and She was their iron-fisted dictator. All feared her.

"Pick up those legs, Stanton! I want to see them hitting your chin!" The runner gave her a half-salute, lifting his legs higher as he jogged around the track. M.M. Stanton could be a true athlete, she supposed, but he didn't have the killer spirit it took to be a competitor. But the boy loved being in motion, and he was good at it. She reckoned they might have a good chance at the next competition with him on the team.

"Ms. Testlaff?" a voice asked softly from behind her.

"What is it, Ms. Fenton?" Testlaff turned to face the non-athlete. Why Fenton was here was beyond her. The elder Fenton child wasn't interested in sports, and she didn't seem interested in the boys… unless it was to psycho-analyze them. Testlaff didn't care for such things. She cared about the human body and its abilities, not the dubious powers of the mind.

"I was wondering if I could talk to Marz about his tutoring."

Testlaff grunted. As far as she was concerned, M.M. Stanton's time was better used doing push-ups, but if he started failing classes, vice-principal Lancer would take him off the team.

"Fine. STANTON! Get over here, pronto!" Testlaff barked at the tall boy, who turned on his heel and jogged over to them.

"What's… up?" He panted, jogging in place.

"Fenton wants you." Testlaff grunted, leaving the two. She could see Baxter showing off to the cheerleaders. He was distracting them, and that would be no good for the next Cheer-off. And Testlaff was determined to win this one.

"Marz," Jazz started. She stopped however, annoyed that he was still jogging in place. Sweat was pouring down his white gym-shirt.

"Yeah?" he puffed, wiping sweat out of his face.

"Do you think you could stop that for a moment while I talk to you?"

Marz slowed down a bit. He sighed, relieved.

"Thank you," she muttered. "Look Marz, we can't study at my house this afternoon. My parents are still working on the ecto-gloves, so it's not going to be quiet, and probably not very safe."

"We could meet at my place. My folks don't make very much noise… Actually, I think it's been about a week since I've actually heard their voices."

"Sounds good. I'll meet you after school." Jazz told him.

"Yeah, after school. I'll pick you up, I mean, wait…" Jazz gave him an amused look.

"Fenton! Wake up and get your butt in gear!" Jazz's head snapped up as she heard Testlaff barking her name. She relaxed a bit, seeing that Testlaff was yelling at her brother. Danny was looking a little grey and worn around the edges.

"Man, he goes hard on the skinny kids." Marz muttered.

"'He'? Marz, Testlaff is a woman!" Jazz corrected him.

"Wait, Tastlaff's a girl? Are you sure?" Marz studied the teacher for a second. "Oh my god! Testlaff's a girl! How'd I miss that?"

"I really have no clue." Jazz smirked at him.

…………………..

"So are you and Miss Highest-scores-in-the-history-of-the-CATs gonna do some_ Jazzercises_ after _studying_?" Marz' friend elbowed him in the side.

"Jazz isn't that kind of girl, Jeffrey." Marz said, defending his tutor. "She's a sweet, smart, independent, mature gal."

"You've got the hots for her."

"Do not! …Well, okay, yeah, I've totally got the hots for her. But she wouldn't want a guy like me. She's probably totally into the brainy type."

"And you can't even spell your own name."

"Hey, do _you_ know how to spell Marcelle?"

"Umm… No."

"Then shut up already."

"Hey! Here she comes!" Jeffrey exclaimed. He tried to shove several wrappers into Marz's pocket.

"Hey! Quit!" Marz shoved them back into Jeffrey's hands. "I've got my own, jerk." Marz muttered.

"Are you ready to go?" Jazz asked him.

Marz gave her an embarrassed grin, stomping Jeffrey's foot to tell him to shoo.

Jeffrey gave Jazz a lecherous grin and his friend the thumbs up, then saddled up his pack and departed.

"Yeah." He picked up his own pack.

Jazz followed him down the sidewalk. Marz lived within walking distance of the school. Jazz was actually surprised that only two minutes later Marz had turned and invited her into a small townhouse.

The house was sparce, with a few pieces of scarred furniture. The kitchen was small, with a round, battered table in the middle.

"Mom, Dad, I'm home!" Marz announced. There was no reply.

"Are they not home?" Jazz asked.

"They should be."

Jazz pulled out a few books from her own pack, setting them on the table in front of Marz.

"Today let's go over how people communicate…"

She was interrupted as two people in white face paint stormed into the kitchen. The woman was pointing at the man, her face furious. The man punched the palm of his hand then shook it at her. The woman waved her arms in the air, than shook her finger at her husband. She then caught sight of the two teens at the table. She smiled and waved. She opened the refrigerator and offered a soda can to Jazz.

"Umm… thanks?" Jazz took the proffered can.

The man punched Marz in the shoulder, than ran in place, flexing his arms, then shrugged.

"Yeah, Dad. Practice was good." Marz answered.

Marz's dad then looked at Jazz and punched his son in the shoulder again, giving him a big grin.

"She's just here to tutor me, Dad."

The man eyed his wife, giving her a knowing smirk. His wife rolled her eyes. She waved for her husband to follow as she left the kitchen. The man then gave his son a wink and followed his wife, obediently.

Jazz stared after them blankly for a moment.

"What was that all about?" she finally asked.

"Mime is their passion." Marz shrugged.

………………….

Jazz yawned, stretching her arms. One thing Marz Stanton knew about, it was different forms of communication, with a family like that. It had been up to her to teach him how to express what he knew in sociological terms.

She still thought her family was stranger, though.

"Hey, Jazz!" Marz ran up beside her. She turned to face him, holding a book to her chest.

"Yes?"

"You, umm… Forgot the rest of your soda?" He offered her the half-empty can.

"You can have it."

"Err, okay." He looked a little downhearted. Jazz smiled at him. He was so obvious. But she liked men who could keep up with her, intellectually.

"Well, let me walk you home."

"I'm driving home."

"Then I'll escort you to your car." He offered his elbow to her.

"There's no need to do that, Marz."

"I know, but I still want to. You know, to thank you."

She looked into his amber eyes. He was kind of like a lost puppy when he looked at her like that.

"You don't need to thank me, Marz. Just do well on the upcoming test and that will be reward enough for me." She turned, feeling a little cold. She didn't have time for men like that.

"I'll do that, then. Because you deserve it." He called after her.

Jazz flinched. A cold wind blew a few dead leaves in front of her, nipping her with its icy teeth.

He watched her go. He felt a great stone drop into his stomach. He hadn't expected to do that. They were two different people. He was a jock. She was a genius. Her dreams were probably filled with numbers, theories, Nobel Prizes for… well, whatever she invented. His dreams always involved running.

Lying back on his pillow later, he stared at the ceiling, watched the shadows the fluttering dead leaves made against it. He wasn't even aware that he'd started to dream.

He was running, the autumn air nipped at his heels like a playful terrier, the dancing leaves darting in front of him, yapping as they scratched against the pavement.

Danny Phantom, that mysterious ghost-hero was jogging beside him, his face filled with determination.

"She's gorgeous." He found himself explaining the snow-haired hero. "She's like winning the end game of a season. You strive and fight and dream of it, then you treasure that moment for the rest of your life. She makes you feel huge and small all at the same time. Powerful and puny, and to lose her at the moment she's almost in your grasp is the worst loss of all, because you came so close and got a taste of what you would miss."

His ghostly companion didn't say a word, but merely nodded. Their footsteps pounded at a slow, steady drum beat, like a heart at peace.

"She makes me excited and calm, like whatever happens, whenever she's there I could do more than I can, just because it's for her." He thought for a moment that he was being incredibly corny.

"What would you do? He finally asked his companion. "If you had something that good, what would you do for it?"

"I would be its hero." The ghost boy finally answered.

……………….

_Dear Diary,_

_I want a man who is intelligent, who understood the answers to life, and who could explain it to me in both poetry and algebraic terms._

_It's not like I don't like Marz, he's a nice guy and all, but he's a jock. I'm a brilliant, rational woman. I'm not going to fall for some idiot just because I find him cute._

_Okay, sure he's cute. I'll give him that. And he's gentle and funny. It was really chivalrous of him to offer to escort me to my car. It was so cute and old school. I could tell he was tripping all over himself. But I'm not going to lead him on. I know what I want._

"Jazz? Can I talk to you?" Her brother called from her open doorway.

"Can it wait, Danny? I'm in the middle of something important." Jazz sighed. "It's not ghost-related, is it?"

"No."

"Well, if it's not urgent then it can wait until morning."

"Okay." Danny looked a little crestfallen, but Jazz pushed the image aside. He knew she'd be there for him. She just needed a little time to herself at the moment.

_I know what I want._

…_Don't I?_

………………….

Danny squirmed in his bed, images of his family, bloodied and pale sprawled in front of him. He noticed his skin had taken on a like blue-green color, his hands smoking green.

_You're a monster, a freak. You'll destroy them all._

"No, I'm not! I protect them! I stop the ghosts!"

_It's your fault the ghosts come._

"That was an accident! And I've made up for it, anyways!"

_Have you? Or maybe you've delayed the inevitable?_

A memory grinned at him. His stupid future self bared its fangs at him.

"I stopped that! I changed it so it wouldn't happen! I know better! I'm careful. I won't become that! I fought it and I won!

_It's still inside you. You can claw and scream at it, but you can't fight forever. You're weak._

"No, I'm not." Danny rolled onto his stomach, clutching his pillow, fighting back sobs.

_Baby. Tears in the face of the truth._

"It's not."

"_He who fights monster shall become a monster."_

"_And if you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares into you."_

………..

"_I've know what I want."_

"_Shall become a monster."_

"_Be its hero."_

…………….

(I know I misquoted Nietzsche. I did it on purpose. The quote is "He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you. But our villain is trimming Nietzsche to fit her own purposes. It's an old, underhanded trick used by politicians, businessmen, con artists, and disreputable scientists to win an argument. Watch out for those.)


	4. Responsibility

Chapter 4:

Marz had never studied so hard in his life. He poured over the books, read extra on the internet, and revised his notes over and over until his fingers blistered and calloused. He played audiotapes of sociology lectures as he drifted off the sleep at night.

He got an A-minus.

He jumped up from his desk and hugged he test when he got it back. Muffled giggles tittered around him, but he didn't care. He got an A.

"Hey brainiac," Jeffrey yelled after him, "You _are_ still coming to practice even though the wizard granted you some grey matter, right?"

"I wouldn't miss it. The way I'm feeling, I could run a thousand miles."

"Great…" Jeffrey forgot what he was going to say as his teammate started prancing down the hall to the locker room.

"But I would walk 500 miles, and I would walk 500 more just to be the man who walked that 1,000 miles to fall down at your door!" Marz sang.

Jeffrey rolled his eyes.

Jazz wasn't surprised to find Marz on the track. He was in rare form too. She _had_ come to ask him how his test results had come out, but she opted to sit in the bleachers and wait fr him to finish instead.

It was kind of hypnotizing to watch him go round and round and round. She wasn't the only one, either. The cheerleaders had stopped to watch him, much to Testlaff's chagrin.

It was like Marz had a glow around him. When he finally spotted her, he gave her a big smile and the thumbs up, so she decided he must of done well.

This was affirmed when he ran up to her after practice, sweat-stained and pale, but with the biggest grin on his face.

"An A-minus! A Solid A-Minus at that!"

Jazz gave him a sideways smirk. She'd heard her father and brother use that phrase several times before.

"And I have you to thank for it." He told her. "I want to thank you."

"I told you, you doing well is enough reward for me."

"Well I want to treat you to a movie then. I'm warning you, I'm persistent. I'm not gonna take no for an answer… well I might, but you'd be breaking my heart."

"Oh fine. I guess I'm up to a movie." Jazz conceded to his excited amber eyes.

"YES!" He pumped his hand in the air. "I'll pick you up at seven, cool?"

"That's fine." She shrugged.

Marz nodded energetically, and Jazz wondered for a moment if he was going to hurt his neck.

She watched him prance to the gym doors, giving his teammates high-fives.

………

Marz let her pick the movie. It was a screening of Citizen Kane. Within ten minutes Marz's head was draped back over the backrest, a line of saliva rolling down his cheek. At least he wasn't snoring.

Jazz settled back with her popcorn to watch. She was actually pretty surprised with the movie. It was intelligent and deep. Her psychologist mind was having a field day with Orson Welles' character.

A ball of green fire blasted through the screen causing screams of fright and surprise.

Marz grunted, bolting out of the seat. "I'm awake! I'm awake!"

Jazz pulled him back down into his seat by the back of his shirt.

Danny Phantom swooped low over their heads, dodging another green ball of fire. Flying fast after his was a bulky robotic ghost with green fire in place of hair and a goatee.

"I'll betaking back what's mine, whelp!" Skulker yelled.

Danny Phantom turned, yelling over his shoulder.

"I don't know what you're talking about!"

"I know you have it! I tracked it here!"

"Tracked what?" The ghost boy rolled his eyes, throwing a ball of green energy at Skulker, who dodged it. The ball hit the back row, which was fortunately empty.

Jazz frowned. It was lucky for Danny that despite it's reputation, Citizen Kane was not a real crowd-gatherer.

"Dude, I hope they paid their insurance." Marz muttered. "As much more exciting this is than the movie, I suggest we split."

He tugged at Jazz's jacket sleeve, but she was frozen, her eyes fixed on the ghost-boy.

"Jazz, we need to get out of here!"

Marz tried to shake her attention from the fight, but she refused to budge.

"Come on, Danny…" she muttered to herself. "You can beat him."

She was playing cheerleader for Phantom? Jazz didn't seem the type to care about that type of thing. But he was. He hunkered down next to her, watching the fight.

Danny charged at Skulker. Skulker dodged to the side, grabbing Danny's foot and swinging him down into the theater seats.

Skulker towered over the dazed hero.

"I've been waiting a long time for this, ghost-child." Skulker raised his arm, a glowing green blade popped out of it. Skulker grinned, slicing down at Danny's head.

A soda bottle hit the back of his head, spreading its sticky, carbonated contents over Skulker's panels.

"What the?" he turned to face his attacker.

Marz was standing up on a chair, his arm stillextended from throwing the soda.

"Boo, Man! I wanna see the kid get in a punch!"

"You've got it!" Danny blasted Skulker in the face with a green ray, knocking the hunter backwards.

Skulker got back up, growling.

"Marz, get down!" Jazz tugged on the jock's jacket, causing him to tumble backwards.

"Hey Skulker," Skulker turned from the two teens to face his opponent again, getting met with the blue vortex of the Fenton Thermos.

"No! Not again!" He wailed, disappearing into the thermos.

"Oh and Skulker," Danny said to the thermos, "Sorry, but you're trip back to the ghost zone is gonna have to wait a couple of days until the Portal is up and running again. You understand, right?"

The thermos growled at him.

Danny floated up above the seats, scanning the remaining moviegoers for the guy who had thrown the soda. Finding the stands empty, he shrugged, floating up through the ceiling.

…………….

"I can't believe you did that!" Jazz scolded the older student. "You could of gotten your stupid butt killed!"

"Yeah, but it sure was worth the look on that stinkin' ghost's face!" Marz laughed. "Did you see him? I think some of his hair went out!"

"You're impossible! I can't believe you. You're just like my dad." She pushed him away. Marz looked at her in confusion.

"I'm just like your dad? You're the one who was so fixated on watching the fight!"

"I was worried about Dan- about Phantom, okay? He's just a kid." She stumbled over her words. She'd gotten too close to spilling her brother's secret,

"I understand that, Jazz. Everybody loves a hero."

"You don't get it, do you? You just see some stupid competition. It's all fun and games to you, isn't it? But people get hurt, Marz!"

"I know it's not a game."

"Then why did you put your stupid butt in danger?"

"Because I…" he stammered, not knowing what to say. He lowered his head.

"You're not who I thought you were." She muttered, finally reevaluating the tall senior.

"Is that a bad thing?"

"No." Jazz sighed. "It isn't. Walk me home?"

"Okay." Marz brightened a little as she took his arm, leaning against it as the chilled autumn wind nipped about their heels.


	5. Stream of Conciousness

Chapter 5:

Marz rang the doorbell below the neon Fentonworks sign.

He glanced at the now familiar plate next to the door.

"Jack and Maddie Fenton…"

He could recite it by heart.

The was the sound of an explosion, Jazz yelling, and someone unlocking the deadbolt to the door.

Marz straightened his jacket the best he could as the door slowly opened.

"Yeah?" Danny peered up at Marz with grey eyes. Marz was taken by surprise by this. By his memory (which wasn't all the great, true,) Jazz's bro had bright blue eyes.

"I'm here to pick up Jazz… you okay, kid?"

"Fine."

Marz was unconvinced.

"Marz!" Jazz hurried up the stairs from the basement lab, straightening her hair. "You're early."

"What can I say, I got impatient to see you again."

"Gag." Danny muttered.

Marz grinned, happy to see the younger boy was in spirit enough to tease them.

"Danny, don't you have someplace to be?"

"Somewhere other than here, you mean?"

"Never let them say you're dumb. Now get."

Danny rolled those lidded, grey eyes and sauntered out, his head lowered to his chest.

Marz watched him go, a certain bit of concern following the kid.

"You don't think we could skip the game tonight, do you?" Jazz asked, looking a little disgusted.

"Sorry Jazz, Mr… I mean, Ms. Testlaff wants us all there to support the football team."

"Ugh. Like we're supposed to enjoy watching a bunch of over-bulked idiots slam into each other?"

"Somehow it's slightly less entertaining then that should sound. I figured we'd sit on the stands with some hotdogs and sodas and keep each other warm."

"You sure can be the romantic when you want to be, Marz." Jazz smiled at him.

"I'm being serious. Those stands are COLD!"

The building shook as another explosion rocked from beneath their feet.

"Mom and Dad are closing in on a way to control the ecto-gloves." Jazz informed Marz.

"Shall we get out of here before they figure it out?"

"Smart guy… Let's go." Jazz pulled him out the door after her, the two of them laughing merrily.

…………

Danny laid back on his bed in the grey.

Slats of light out from the blinds drew lines upon the opposite wall.

And it was grey.

Danny tried to get up, but he felt his arms root to the mattress, holding him down. His neck was stiff, but he turned it, creaking, to the side.

The poster of the space station on his wall seemed so far away. As distant as the stars, but instead of glitter floating on Indian ink, they faded away into the grey.

He'd never travel to space.

He wasn't smart enough.

Wasn't lucky enough.

Dreams didn't matter.

So Far Away.

Grey.

"Jazz?" he rasped. His throat felt as if someone had shoved sandpaper and cotton down it.

"Jazz?"

I need you.

He could hear her giggling with Marz.

She had a chance for some real happiness. Why drag her down with him?

"I'll always be there for you… in different ways."

Go ahead, Daniel, pull her into your problems. Into the grey.

He was too tired to sleep, too tired to cry, too tired to get up, yelling for his sister as the house was rocked by another explosion from the basement.

He rolled off the bed, hitting his knees on the floor.

His back burned and his limbs stiffened.

He heard the door slam as Jazz and Marz left.

He crawled into the closet, shutting himself in it, wrapping himself in the dark.

"You stole something from me, whelp, and I want it back."

What had been stolen from Skulker?

His brain fuzzed over. He fumbled about in the dark before his hand felt something soft and fuzzy. He pulled it in close to his chest, pushing his face into the understanding plush. He sneezed, dust from the long-forgotten toy creeping into his nostrils.

A phone rang. It was his cell. It rang again, again, again, until finally the caller either gave up or was passed along to his voicemail.

He wrapped himself in the darkness.

At first it was warm, comforting blackness, but then he felt his shiver crawl up his spine and into his arms, turning the darkness cold. A terror seized him, paralyzing him, body and thought.

Dark silhouettes invaded his mind with long claws of steel, hacking at familiar sleeping figures.

The blackness gripped his bones with daggers of ice.

In a sudden start he kicked at the back wall, phasing through the closet door and rolled across the carpet.

He gripped the small plush, sniffling and sneezing as the dust swirled about in the air as the grey faded to icy black.

……………

Night descends fast as Fall fades from its golden splendor to the greys and browns of winter. Jazz had noticed before that depression seemed to spread as the days grew shorter. When she was younger, she had equated this with the image of everything dying, but now she knew it had to do with the decreased Vitamin D and endorphins that sunlight created and released in the body. The lack of endorphins, which created those summertime feelings of peace and euphoria, left people more susceptible to depression.

Night had fallen fast over the football field, and it was cold.

Cheers raised as the team did well, then faded as the rteam did worse.

She felt her mood rise and fall with those cheers. She understood it had to do with group mentality. She might of even let herself give into it if it wasn't for Marz's head on her lap. The late Autumn chill had put him to sleep before they had even reached half-time.

Jazz couldn't help but think he was kind of cute that way. Like a big puppy-dog, filled with open, innocent, playful honesty.

He was also warm. Warm in a way that one only felt with the wind rising up against your back.

The team scored.

Maybe they would win.

That would be nice, bring in a bit of school spirit before the long winter haul.

Looking up, Jazz could see the stars, those glistening diamonds against a velvet sky, soft and Black.

She played a bit with Marz's hair, searching for the different constellations. For a moment she thought back to a night years ago when Danny had pulled her out of bed to point out the constellations to her. Like every little boy, he'd dreamed of visiting outer space.

They'd been so young, and it had looked so close, like you could reach up and stir the milky way with your fingers.

"Jazz?" Marz mumbled.

"Yeah?" she leaned in closer, smelling his hair.

"My feet are cold."

"Yeah, mine too. Let's head home."

"Did we win?"

Jazz looked over at the scoreboard and winced. The rival team had taken a new lead while she'd been lost in thought.

"Let's go home now and pretend we did."

"Sounds like a plan.

………………

(That was sort of stream of consciousness right there. I just felt like you needed to see more of Marz and Jazz's relationship, and more of Danny's depression before we went into the big reveals and subsequent action.)


	6. Outside Eyes

Chapter 6:

(This one's for me mum.)

"So there's this lecture on adolescent rebellion being given by Doctor Long tonight, and I thought we could go together, you know…" Jazz banged her head against her locker door. Great. She finally found something to go to with Marz that didn't involve sports, and she couldn't figure out how to ask him.

"Sounds like fun." Jazz jumped, she whirled around, facing Marz, who had managed to sneak up on her.

"Marz!"

"You get in a lecture, I get in a nap, sounds good to me."

"Brutally honest as always." Jazz muttered.

"Hey, will they be serving popcorn and soda?"

"I doubt it."

"Will you be dressed up all nice in something respectably sexy?"

"We'll see."

"Rowl." He grinned, nuzzling her neck.

"Okay, get off." She pushed him off a bit, noticing they'd caught a few stares.

"It's tonight. Think you can manage it?"

"Glowing green skeletons couldn't drag me away… well, actually they probably could, but not without one hum-dinger of a fight." He tickled her around the waist, making her giggle against her will.

"Jazz Fenton?" The laughter broke off as they noticed the school's art teacher Mrs. Stone, better known as Stonewall for her unshakable dedication to her duty. She was known to take her trusty hammer to cell-phones that rung in the middle of class. She'd once reduced Paulina to tears when she'd obliterated the girl's Sayonara Pussy-Kat cellphone.

"We weren't doing anything, Ma'am!" Marz quickly stuck his hands in his pockets, jumping away from Jazz.

"Believe it or not, Mr. Stanton, I don't care what you were doing. I just want to talk to Jazzmine."

"It's okay, Marz. You better head to class." Jazz shooed the boy off.

"If you'll follow me to my office, I'd like to talk to you about your brother."

Jazz followed the short teacher to the art room, which was empty of students. Jazz wasn't taking any art classes at the moment, but she remembered her classes fondly. And she knew that Danny seemed to also enjoy them. She scanned the room as Stonewall sat down at her desk. Jazz was surprised to see a Medusa Lisa print hung up behind Stonewall's desk.

"How are things at home?" Stonewall asked.

Jazz wasn't completely surprised by the question, it was pretty standard with most teachers.

"They're good. Mom and dad are working on a new invention, so we've been avoiding the area above the basement."

Stonewall laughed. All the teachers knew about the Fenton's line of work, since the ghost hunters often staked out the school to hunt for ghosts.

"But you wanted to talk to me about Danny?" Jazz asked, wanting to get back to the subject at hand.

"Yes, Danny. I'm concerned about his work of late."

"Look, if he's sleeping through class again, we've been working on that." Jazz tried to explain.

"That's not it. I'm used to kids sleeping through my class. I can deal with that. Your brother is on my caffeine treatment." The teacher gave Jazz a mischievous smirk.

"No, what I'm concerned about is the work your brother has been turning in lately." Stonewall opened the file that was lying on the desk in front of her. Jazz leaned over, taking a closer look at the sketches.

She lifted them up to study them closer. They were filled with terrible scenes of destruction and death, complete with severed limbs. There was even a gruesome comic involving a decapitation involving a pane of glass.

"What are these?" She finally asked the teacher.

"I think A's, but I'm worried about Danny. He's not sleeping through my class, and I suspect he's not sleeping at all. He usually just stares blankly ahead, like he's in a completely different world, sometimes even mumbling to himself. He hasn't been sitting with Sam and Tucker, won't speak to anyone, and when he does do work for me, it involves these things." Stonewall gestured to the pencil sketch of the Fentonworks sign in rubble.

"It's just not like him." Stonewall leaned back. "I recognized a couple of scenes from my daughter's horror movies. So I thought at first he was just going through a phase, but then they got worse."

She flipped to a few of the latest works, which were less violent, but filled with lonely rooms and single figures laying in them.

"Another plus, he's gotten really good using graphite and charcoal."

The bell rang and a stream of late art students poured into the room.

"I trust you'll talk to him, he's a good student (when he's awake), and I don't want him going the way of Van Gogh,"

Jazz nodded, numbly digesting what the teacher had told her.

How could she of missed it?

Walking out of the room, she realized that all the signs of depression had been there. Danny hadn't been eating, he hadn't had Sam and Tucker over, he didn't go out every night like he used to. He'd also been asking to talk to her for a couple of weeks. Since right after she'd first met Marz, in fact. She'd been so consumed with her own confused feelings, she had completely neglected her careful watch over her brother.

She'd barely spoken to him except to tell him to go away. Now that she thought about it, the last time she had seen Danny actually happy was the day she met Marz.

She'd have to talk to Danny after school.

……………………

Danny stared at the card he'd found in his pack. He'd completely forgotten about it. He couldn't talk to his parents, he couldn't talk to his friends, he couldn't even talk to his sister. He'd been trying, but each time he even considered it, something inside him made him recoil at the thought. There was always an excuse. They wouldn't understand, they'd send him away, they'd discover his secret, they'd think h was going nuts, they'd be embarrassed of him. Things he once knew weren't true confronted his common sense and sent him down another path of depression. Staring at the business card, he summoned up what energy he had and dialed the number.

It rang. Danny shuffled his feet. He really shouldn't call them about this. Ring. It wasn't something they'd understand. Ring. It was long distance. Ring. His parents would be mad. Rin-

Someone picked up the phone.

"Hello, Haunting Detective's Agency."

Too late to turn back now.

"Hey. This is Danny Fenton, I don't know if you remember-"

"Danny Fenton? Hey Daisy! It's the Fenton kid! Danny, Hey! How are you doing? How's your old man? Not still blowing up ghosts in the lab is he?" Christopher Haunting's cheery voice rang over the line.

"Dad's fine. He and mom have been working on a new invention. They've been in the lab for about three days straight. I think they went out for more parts, though."

Haunting laughed.

"But I… I'm not doing to well." Danny finally said. It was a struggle to get the words out.

"Not Masters again?"

"No, nothing like that."

_You're wasting their time. _

"I've been hearing voices."

_They'll have you locked up. They'll figure out your secret. You'll be experimented on, locked in a cage, treated like a lab rat, and you'd deserve every moment of it._

"Ghost voices or voices in your head?" Chris Haunting sounded concerned.

"I think in my head. It started after a fight I had with the Box Ghost…"

_You'll be called a freak, they'll figure it out, send you to be locked away-_

"Wait a minute…"

"What?"

"Mr. Haunting, if the voices are coming from my head because I'm going crazy, wouldn't they know that you already know about me being a half ghost?"

"Careful Danny, Homeland security might be listening in and… yeah, the voices should already know that if it's all in your head. Of course, I'm no psychologist, I opted for sociology instead…"

"Then I'm not going crazy! And if it's not in my head, then this depression must be coming from something else!" Danny felt it all clicking into place.

"Oh man, I'm an idiot! Of course! The cold chills, the blackness, the depression and lack of energy… It must be-" Danny suddenly gave a scream. It felt like somehow his entire back was cramping up, trying to collapse in on it self. Red dots filled his sight as he collapsed to the floor.

Danny curled up into a fetal position, he pain spreading to his arms, down his legs, into his hands and feet, and up towards his temples.

A green blob rose from the floor, taking in the sight of the stricken teen with mild interest.

"Danny! Danny! Are you there? Kid, what happened?" Haunting's voice yelled over the phone dangling an inch from the floor.

The blob smiled, picking up the phone.

"I'm sorry, Danny can't come to the phone right now, he has an appointment with Miss Spectra. But if you'd like to leave a message, I'll be happy to take it down for you. The ghost laughed, slamming down the receiver.

He picked up Danny, who was still curled up with pain on the floor. He slung him over his flying him out the through the roof.

Neither noticed, but a car pulled up in front of Fentonworks as they departed. Jazz stepped out of her car, holding her books under her arm.

……………

Walking into the house, Jazz found a note on the table from her mother, stating that she and Jack had finished the gloves and had gone out for some spackling.

Jazz noticed Danny's pack next to the table.

"Danny, are you home?" She climbed up the stairs and knocked on Danny's door.

"Danny, I know you've been wanting to talk. Can I come in?"

There was no answer.

Jazz pushed open the door but found the room empty. She was walking down the stairs again when the phone rang.

She rushed over to it, then noticed Marz at the front door, waving. She waved back, then held up two fingers, asking him to give her two minutes.

"Fentonworks, This is Jazz." She said, answering the phone.

"Oh man, thank god I got through to you!" A man sighed in relief, then his voice changed back to a tone of urgency. "Look, Jazz, your brother is in trouble. I was talking to him on the phone when he screamed and dropped it."

"Who is this?"

"Christopher Haunting, Private Detective, but that's not important right now. Somebody picked up the phone and said that the kid had an appointment with a Ms. Specter or something."

"Spectra?"

"That would be the one. I haven't a clue what's going on, but before I lost contact with him, Danny said something about hearing voices."

"As in ghost voices or in his head?"

"He said they were coming from his head, but they didn't know certain things about him, so they couldn't of actually be coming from his mind."

"That's just like Spectra." Jazz growled. "She loves messing with people's minds and causing them misery."

"I'd like to help you and Danny, but I'm sort of located in a different state and it will take time for me to get to Amity Park."

"Don't worry, I'll handle this."

"You'll handle what?" Marz asked from behind her.

"Good luck, kid."

Jazz put down the phone.

"Marz!"

"What's up?" Marz beamed at her.

"Look, Marz, there's something I have to do."

"What is that?"

"Just… I have to pick up Danny." Jazz turned, heading for the kitchen. To her annoyance, Marz followed.

"Cool. It's neat you do that sort of thing for your little bro."

"Okay, Marz, you need to leave. I'll see you in school tomorrow."

"Tomorrow's Saturday."

Jazz rolled her eyes, climbing down the stairs to the lab.

Marz stood uneasily at the top of the stairs. He'd never been down there, only heard multiple explosions, shouts, and every now and then, a cry of "Eureka!"

But Jazz never forgot what day it was.

He climbed down the stairs after her.

Jazz was grabbing up inventions. The Ecto-gloves, the Fenton Peeler, the Boo-Merang, a Fenton thermos…

"You need all that to pick your brother up?"

Jazz stiffened.

"Marz, you know you're not authorized to come down here!" she scolded, shoving the Boo-Merang into a saddle-pack with the other various ghost weapons.

"What is going on?" Marz asked, knocking over a vacuum with the words "Fenton Extractor" printed on the bag. He picked it up, righting it.

"Look, Marz, I'm sorry, but I just can't tell you."

"Why not?"

Jazz covered her eyes. Marz was giving her those sad puppy-eyes again.

"Just go home Marz." She shoved him aside, running up the stairs.

"Jazz, wait!" Marz ran after her.

Jazz climbed into her car.

"It's Danny, isn't it? Is it a ghost? Is that why his eyes turned grey?" Marz held onto the edge of the open car window as Jazz started the engine.

She looked up at him in surprise.

"His eyes were grey?"

"I mean, they were blue when I first met him, you know. It was the first thing I noticed about him."

"Marz, go home. I'll take care of it myself." She rolled up the window and put the car into gear. Marz's fingers slid along the saide of the car as she drove off. She stopped at the light, opened the door, and threw the Boo-Merang into the sky. She closed the door as the light turned green and then shot forward, the wheels screeching as she took off.

Marz watched her disappear down the road.

_I'd be its Hero._

He made up his mind and ran back into Fentonworks.

…………


	7. Fighting It

Chapter 7:

(This is pretty short, but I guarantee ACTION!)

The sun was setting fast as Jazz sped after the boo-merang.

The abandoned North Mercy hospital (known to locals as the "No Mercy" hospital was located an ironic half mile south of Amity Park.

Jazz supposed she shouldn't be surprised. The last time Spectra attacked, she had used the hospital as a hideout. Jazz parked out front. She pulled out the ecto-gloves, setting the power level to regular. Thinking about the torment Spectra had been tormenting her brother she reset it for crispy-fried.

………

With her gear set, Jazz wandered into the hospital, her confidence quickly evaporating as she noted the worsened condition of the deteriorating building. She had remembered it being very dark and dreary, but time and nature was taking its toll. Mold spread along the walls.

"He shouldn't of lasted this long." A female voice coming from the only lit room said.

Jazz peeked around the doorframe. Spectra hovered over Danny with Bertrand standing to the side.

"That ghost sprite should have completely overtaken his mind by now." Spectra grumbled, poking Danny in the side.

He recoiled in pain and growled a curse that Jazz hadn't realized he knew.

…………

His nerve endings were on fire. He could barely think for the constant barrages the sprite (as Spectra had called it) set on his mind. Spectra was complaining to Bertrand about him, though for some reason he couldn't exactly pick out what they were saying. He was fighting it now, but it was wearing him out. If he weren't so angry, he would of just gone to sleep. It was all he wanted, a break from the ragging on his brain.

Spectra prodded him in the side. Danny recoiled, his pain receptors set on overload. He growled a particularly nasty word at her.

"Now that will do you no good, Danny." Spectra taunted, waving her finger in chastisement. "What would your mother think of your language? But don't worry; we'll have you well behaved and obedient soon enough. Why, if this works, we'll have found a cure for all teen rebelliousness!"

Bertrand clapped unenthusiastically as Spectra beamed.

Bertrand paused for a moment, looking about as if he'd heard something.

…………

Jazz hid her face behind the corner of the doorframe as Bertrand looked around for the source of whatever he'd sensed.

Bertrand went intangible, sinking through the floor.

It was quiet. Jazz peeked around the door again.

"Boo." Jazz turned and screamed at Bertrand's sudden appearance in front of her.

She lifted up both hands, blasting him through the wall.

Bertrand growled, morphing into a jaguar. He leapt at her claws outstretched. Jazz blasted him backwards again.

Bertrand splattered against the ceiling, and then oozed back down to the ground, reforming into a towering boxer. He growled at her, smacking his green gloves against each other.

He ran at her, arms outstretched.

Jazz caught his gloves in her hands, grappling with the giant. He pressed harder, leering at her.

Jazz suddenly let go, shoving him to the side, letting him tumble to the floor. She swept out the Thermos, uncapping the swirling blue vortex. Bertrand clawed at the ground, green ooze flying off of him, spiraling into the thermos. Finally his grip gave out and he was sucked screaming into the thermos.

………….

He was so tired. Tired of hurting, Tired of fighting, maybe even tired of living. He clung on, grasping at whatever he could to stay awake, stay out of its grasp, but his sight edged away into grey. If he could just sleep…

No, he had to hang on. Had to fight it.

He could hear the sounds of the battle in the hallway outside. He was too tired even to consider the thought of wanting to join it. Sleep tempted him, weighing on every inch of him, even as those inches burned with caustic pain.

_Just sleep. Give in. Let yourself fade away. All the hurt will go away if you just stop fighting and let yourself go…_

………….

She turned, shoving the Fenton Thermos back in her bag, and found herself face to face with Spectra.

"Hello Jazz." Spectra grinned, flashing jagged white teeth.

"Spectra! You leave my brother alone!" Jazz growled, lifting her fists into a fighting stance.

"Isn't that _your_ job?"

Jazz dropped her fists a little, the verbal blow hitting home.

"Poor Danny," Spectra mocked in a sickly sweet voice, "Just when he needed her the most, his big sister pushed him away."

"I didn't know!" Jazz defended, guilt flaring up in her stomach.

"Didn't you? Surely all the signs were there, lack of appetite, disinterest in his favorite things, no energy for his favorite activities?"

"Yeah, they were, and I ignored them… but now I know what caused them." Jazz clenched her fists, the ecto-gloves powering up for another attack. "And I'm going to do something about it."

She blasted the taunting ghost in the stomach, throwing her backwards.

Jazz pulled the Fenton thermos out of her saddle-pack, aiming it at Spectra who was rising once more.

A white glove grabbed her arm.

"Danny?"

Two emotionless grey eyes gazed back at her.

"DANNY!"


	8. Marz Attacks

Chapter 8:

"Danny!" Jazz backed up, dropping the thermos. Danny stared at her with empty eyes. His face was expressionless and blank. Spectra flew up behind his and wrapped her arms around his shoulders.

"How do you like it? The sprite drained away his emotional resources and power until there was nothing left but this. Of course he fought back once he realized what was happening, but it was too late and the sprite had taken over too much of his body. Now all that is left is my very own teen misery factory and personal slave. Doesn't that sound _fun?"_ Spectra grinned sadistically, beaming in her victory.

"Danny?" Danny's face showed no recognition to his name.

"Oh, he can't hear you. Not anymore at least. Now, Danny," Spectra backed up, addressing her new slave, "Destroy her."

Danny's hunched over, his hands glowing green.

"Danny, don't do this," Jazz powered up the gloves, preparing to defend her self. Danny blasted two ecto-rays at her, which she caught with the ecto-gloves. Danny pressed on with more power. Jazz felt her feet slipping across the dust-coated floor. Jazz gritted her teeth. She couldn't let Spectra win, but she knew she couldn't overpower Danny. She had to outthink him somehow. She needed a distraction or-

A boo-merang flew through the hall, hitting Danny in the side of the head.

They both stared at it blankly for a moment.

"Hey! Get away from her!" Marz kicked open the door, holding the Fenton Extractor. Jazz took advantage of the surprise and blasted Danny backwards with the Ecto-Gloves. He flew backwards through the air right at Marz. Marz switched on the Extractor, which caught Danny square in the back.

Danny screamed. Grey-green lines glowed about his body, pulling and tearing from his arms and back. Danny finally slumped over and fell forward. Marz switched off the extractor.

Jazz ran forward, catching her superhero brother in her arms.

"Man, and I thought Danny Phantom was supposed to be a Good Guy." Marz sounded deeply disappointed.

"He _is_ a good guy. Spectra was controlling him. You _saved_ him from that thing!"

"Really? Cool!"

"No!" Spectra roared. She flew at them. Jazz ducked down to the floor, holding Danny's unconscious form close to her. Spectra hit Marz head on, slamming him into the wall.

She wrapped herself around Marz, her arm around his neck.

"You'll pay for that, Meddler!" Spectra's hand glowed green and she drew it close to his face. "Not that it really matters. That sprite will have left him catatonic! No ghost has ever woken up from its power!"

Marz growled. The hand glowed brighter as Spectra prepared to fry his face right off. Marz roared, slamming his head backwards into Spectra's face.

She dropped him in surprise. Marz rolled across the floor and pushed himself back up. He clenched his fists, taking a fighting stance.

"Oh please." Spectra rubbed her nose. "You pathetic, insignificant fool, do you actually believe you can fight me with your bare fists?"

Marz roared, letting loose a fast punch which went right through Spectra's midsection.

"You're not a very fast learner, are you?" Spectra grinned. "I'm a ghost! That means you can't touch me, but I can do _this _to you!" Spectra blasted Marz backwards. He hit the wall, banging his head hard.

"Marz!" Jazz yelled. She wanted to run over and help him, but she couldn't abandon Danny, not again. She clutched him in her arms, holding his head. It didn't look good.

Marz slid down to the ground.

"Owwwww…"He groaned, rubbing his head.

Spectra towered over him, smiling sadistically. She slid down beside him, tasting his pain and doubt.

"You've failed. Your hero has fallen, and your beloved has been disappointed."

"Please Danny, wake up." Jazz whispered to her lifeless brother. "I'm sorry I wasn't there for you, even though I'd promised you I would. Please, just wake up and I'll never let it happen again. I'll never ignore your pain again."

"You're nothing in anyone's eyes. You have nothing to offer in this." Spectra hissed. She could taste the growing misery emanating off of the jock. She delighted as his heart sank. "She'll never love you."

Marz looked over at Jazz, who was rocking Danny Phantom back and forth, near tears. He had failed her, didn't he? He came running to her rescue and managed to fail her completely.

"Why even try?"

Marz glared at her, his defiance raising once more.

"Hey Spectra," A familiar voice growled. "Shut up already."

Marz looked up. Danny Phantom floated in the air, fists glowing, and standing, smiling right next to him, eyes red and fists glowing just as brightly, stood Jazz.

"Dude! You're okay!" Marz grinned.

"What? No! that's impossible!"

"Ha! In your face, ghost-lady!" Marz taunted. Spectra shot him a dirty look.

"Come on Spectra, it's just you and us now." Danny challenged.

"I don't think so!" Spectra grabbed Marz around the neck, shoving him in front of her as a shield. "Attack me and monkey-boy here gets fried instead!"

"Marz!" Jazz exclaimed.

"Aw, man! Not this again!" Marz groaned.

Spectra floated up into the air, backing towards the door.

Marz butted his head backwards.

"Ha! You think I'd fall for that again?" Spectra went intangible, letting Marz's head fly backwards harmlessly through her.

Marz fell through her, dropping to the floor.

Spectra stared down at him.

"Well, shoot…" she groaned, realizing her mistake.

Danny and Jazz grinned.

"Thermos?" she asked, picking it up off the floor.

"Thermos." Jazz tossed it to him. Danny uncapped it, the swirling blue light catching Spectra in its vortex.

"Nooooo! Not Again!" Spectra clawed at the air uselessly. She disappeared into the small container. Danny capped it.

Jazz ran to Marz, hugging him around the neck.

"Marz, that was so clever! I can't believe you tricked Spectra into letting go of you!"

"Tricked? Sure, whatever you say, Jazz." Marz grinned, giving Danny the thumbs up.

Jazz turned to her brother.

"Danny, I-" she glanced over at Marz, who was scanning Danny Phantom up and down, grinning ear to ear. "Um, thanks for everything."

"Thank _You,_ Jazz, for coming after me… You didn't have to do that."

"Yes I did. Everyone loves a hero." She said, remembering Marz's words from the theater.

"Well, I'll see you around, um… Citizens." Danny flew off through the roof.

Danny and Jazz ran out the door. They watched him disappear into the moonlit sky.

"Marz?" Jazz asked him, wondering what he could possibly be thinking. Surely it had to be obvious to him now.

"Dude, that was Danny Phantom." Marz whispered in awe. "Jazz?" he turned to her, his face serious.

"What?" she braced herself for the coming inquiries. How did she know Phantom? What was the phone call about? Why had she risked her life for a ghost?

"Where did you learn to fight like that? You kicked major butt!" He burst out, excited.

"Hey! How did you know about that? ...You were watching the whole time!"

"Heh, yeah. Apparently that tracking device in your parent's basement was locked onto your car somehow. I just followed that. When I saw you were in trouble, I threw the boo-merang to distract Phantom for a second."

"You were watching that whole time?"

"Yeah… Marz blushed and grinned sheepishly. He brightened again. "So do you like, do that often? You know, fight ghosts?"

"Not if I can help it. Come on, hotshot, I'll drive you home. I need to talk to my brother."

"Totally! He's gotta love to hear about this!"

"Right…" Jazz let him slide his arm over her shoulder as they walked to the car.


	9. Epilogue

Chapter 9/Epilogue:

Jazz opened the door to her room yawning. To her surprise she found Danny stretched out on her bed with her journal open in front of him.

"Danny! What do you think you're doing?"

"Man, Jazz, I knew you liked the guy, but I didn't realize you had it that bad."

"Give me back my journal!" Jazz leapt for the book, but her brother rolled out of the way.

"For the past couple of weeks worth of entries it's been nothing but 'Marz said' and 'Marz did'. Man, I've never seen you so obsessed!"

"I am not obsessed!" Jazz grabbed the journal away from him as he laughed. "Well, at least you're back to your normal, annoying self."

They both sat on the bed in silence.

"Danny, I'm sorry."

"Sorry for what? Being happy?" Danny sighed.

"For ignoring you. For letting it get between us. I didn't mean to, I was just so-"

"Confused? It's all in your journal. (And way more interesting than your earlier entries)"

Jazz shot Danny a dirty look.

"Jazz, believe it or not, I understand."

"Do you?"

"Yeah, I mean, look at all the times a girl or guy got between me and Sam- what?"

"Oh, nothing." Jazz smothered a giggle and knowing grin. Recovering control over her face, Jazz settled back down. "So we're good?"

"Always…" Danny grinned mischievously. "Jazz and Marz, sittin' in a tree-"

"You little brat!" Jazz laughed, hitting him with a pillow, normalcy returning home.

End

…………

(Author's note. Yeah, that was really short, but the main body of the story was done, and so was everything I wanted in there. I really loved writing Marz and Jazz's relationship, and I plan on continuing it. Not always as the focus of the story, of course, but in a background capacity.

On another note, I think I might put this through a rewrite. I've never written a romance before, so I'm calling in a friend to help out. She does a lot of romantic role-plays, so hopefully she'll be able to help me tighten it up a bit. Plus she likes it when I read these aloud to her… Go fig.)


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